So I thought about it.... and we are all well versed in classic titles... and we all (especially as of late) seem to have a lot of classic play-throughs going on... so I figured rather than un-earth an old Breath of Fire 3 thread, why not just have one nice, neat and orderly thread for us to toss around questions regarding whatever our current nostalgic flavor may be.... that is, let us use this thread to pose questions for any past generation titles we may currently be playing (not just breath of fire)

If the powers that be think this idea foolish, by all means let it just be a new Breath of Fire thread or remove it entirely....If it catches on though... maybe it could become a.... *gasp* sticky??? Time will tell I suppose....

In any event my kick-off-classic-question is this... how long should I train with masters in Breath of Fire 3 before switching the character in question to a new master... is there an indication as to when I've reaped all the available benefits? Any additional "master system" guidance (spoiler free) would be appreciated actually..... I was going to simply check a faq out but I quickly realized dancing around any spoilers there is a fools errand with this title.... at least on gamefaqs.... so forgive me if this "master system" stuff is common knowledge, but I've been playing for quite a while now and just realized masters don't teach the same skill twice... so before I waste any more time/levels erroneously I figured it best to discern the "meat and potatos" of the situation, so to speak.

Sub-standard Equipment: Berzerkers, no healing, no control, no revive; Almagest and Grand Cross will likely eat this party whole without careful planning.

Full Power Run: Ninjas or Dancers; both of these suffer from the whole 'conservation of ninjas' law. Ninjas are fragile little buggers that rely on critical hits and evasion; usually a good hit or two will wipe them out if luck is against you, a whole party of melee glass cannons has never ended well. Dancers suffer from the fact that there's only a limited amount of 'good' Dancer gear. So while one or two of your Dancers will be quite strong the other two or three will be dead weight; add in that the dance selected is random and there's high potential for a 'Why the **** are you using Tentarafoo AGAIN!?'.

Geomancers aren't crappy and !Terrain is kind of overpowered early on.

I can see how an entire party of them would be useless though.

Plus they're pretty useful for things like the Subsea Volcano where their ability to null damage terrain is actually relevant. Though yes, they suck by endgame and you can't even get their best weapon due to lacking a Thief to steal it.

Blue Mages are pretty useless without skills but since you'll be in them 24/7 you're bound to pick up a few spells and then you're just gimping yourself for the sake of gimping yourself. Plus they have a few decent choices for equips (roughly on par with Red Mages at least).

Berserkers, while one trick ponies, do that trick pretty well (they are pretty beefy at least). Too bad Monks basically outclass them completely before they even show up.

Ninjas are fucking blenders even without any sort of defense. If you want Ninjas but worse, take Thief instead (same lack of durability but obviously lacking in the killdozer department).

Dancers, even without all the gear, can still be pretty dodgy, and with four people you're bound to hit upon Sword Dance or Jitterbug sooner or later.

I'd put my money on Bare frankly. All they have is unlimited equipment options, the ability to use items, and nothing else if you never leave it.

But honestly, if I really had to reclass them into something for the sake of the argument then Berserkers. Better beatsticks are already available to you by the time you get them, their equipment sucks (Axes lose their novelty when FF style Knight Swords are around), and you can't fall back on the item command and the oh so broken option of chucking elemental rods at all your problems like everybody else can (including Bare).

In any event my kick-off-classic-question is this... how long should I train with masters in Breath of Fire 3 before switching the character in question to a new master... is there an indication as to when I've reaped all the available benefits? Any additional "master system" guidance (spoiler free) would be appreciated actually..... I was going to simply check a faq out but I quickly realized dancing around any spoilers there is a fools errand with this title.... at least on gamefaqs.... so forgive me if this "master system" stuff is common knowledge, but I've been playing for quite a while now and just realized masters don't teach the same skill twice... so before I waste any more time/levels erroneously I figured it best to discern the "meat and potatos" of the situation, so to speak.

I don't think there's anyway to look at the master list without spoiling things, so I definitely wouldn't do that. Here are some quick tips from Kixer's guide at gamefaqs:

-Check the Master List in the tent. If the Master has a star by his/her name, your character has learned all the skills that they have to teach.-If you run out of room on any character's Skill list, just use a Skill Ink to unload some useless skills. You can get a Skill Ink from any of the Fishing Spot Manillos.-If you are using a Master just to learn the skills, DO NOT stop training as this will cancel any levels you have built up under them and you'll have to start over.-If you have any really low level characters, use them to learn the skills. Then all you have to do is Skill Ink them to the character you want to have the skill. You'll find it's much quicker than leveling up a level 50 Ryu. Or use Monopolize (a master skill) to steal XP from mobs.

In any event my kick-off-classic-question is this... how long should I train with masters in Breath of Fire 3 before switching the character in question to a new master... is there an indication as to when I've reaped all the available benefits? Any additional "master system" guidance (spoiler free) would be appreciated actually..... I was going to simply check a faq out but I quickly realized dancing around any spoilers there is a fools errand with this title.... at least on gamefaqs.... so forgive me if this "master system" stuff is common knowledge, but I've been playing for quite a while now and just realized masters don't teach the same skill twice... so before I waste any more time/levels erroneously I figured it best to discern the "meat and potatos" of the situation, so to speak.

I don't think there's anyway to look at the master list without spoiling things, so I definitely wouldn't do that. Here are some quick tips from Kixer's guide at gamefaqs:

-Check the Master List in the tent. If the Master has a star by his/her name, your character has learned all the skills that they have to teach.-If you run out of room on any character's Skill list, just use a Skill Ink to unload some useless skills. You can get a Skill Ink from any of the Fishing Spot Manillos.-If you are using a Master just to learn the skills, DO NOT stop training as this will cancel any levels you have built up under them and you'll have to start over.-If you have any really low level characters, use them to learn the skills. Then all you have to do is Skill Ink them to the character you want to have the skill. You'll find it's much quicker than leveling up a level 50 Ryu. Or use Monopolize (a master skill) to steal XP from mobs.

Thank you so much for extracting that info for me and thus sparing my eyes the peril of what I may have glanced.... seeing specific characters names listed in various categories via stategy guides and faqs have led to the worst spoilers of my gaming career..... good to know it was wise to evade the guides and this one... thanks again :)

In any event my kick-off-classic-question is this... how long should I train with masters in Breath of Fire 3 before switching the character in question to a new master... is there an indication as to when I've reaped all the available benefits? Any additional "master system" guidance (spoiler free) would be appreciated actually..... I was going to simply check a faq out but I quickly realized dancing around any spoilers there is a fools errand with this title.... at least on gamefaqs.... so forgive me if this "master system" stuff is common knowledge, but I've been playing for quite a while now and just realized masters don't teach the same skill twice... so before I waste any more time/levels erroneously I figured it best to discern the "meat and potatos" of the situation, so to speak.

I don't think there's anyway to look at the master list without spoiling things, so I definitely wouldn't do that. Here are some quick tips from Kixer's guide at gamefaqs:

-Check the Master List in the tent. If the Master has a star by his/her name, your character has learned all the skills that they have to teach.-If you run out of room on any character's Skill list, just use a Skill Ink to unload some useless skills. You can get a Skill Ink from any of the Fishing Spot Manillos.-If you are using a Master just to learn the skills, DO NOT stop training as this will cancel any levels you have built up under them and you'll have to start over.-If you have any really low level characters, use them to learn the skills. Then all you have to do is Skill Ink them to the character you want to have the skill. You'll find it's much quicker than leveling up a level 50 Ryu. Or use Monopolize (a master skill) to steal XP from mobs.

Thank you so much for extracting that info for me and thus sparing my eyes the peril of what I may have glanced.... seeing specific characters names listed in various categories via stategy guides and faqs have led to the worst spoilers of my gaming career..... good to know it was wise to evade the guides and this one... thanks again :)

Additionally some masters are worth keeping on your people just for the level up bonuses. Take the first mage based master for instance, he's actually fairly good to keep on Ryu despite the hits to his physical stats due to his boosts to Ryu's AP growth. This is because unlike in BoFs 1 & 2 where AP either went into dragon transformation for a fixed cost or completely wiped out his AP for an underwhelming nuke; BoF3's transformations have both an AP cost to transform and a lesser but continuous AP upkeep for every turn after, and on top of that is whatever you need to burn to use skills and spells that have AP costs. Hence why it's actually a good idea to focus more on building Ryu's AP than his other stats.

You can check what masters give to level up bonuses in game so you shouldn't need to worry about that, and beyond Ryu's surprising need for AP everyone else just wants more of what makes them special (i.e. Nina wants Int, Momo wants AP, Int, or Accuracy, ect...).

We HAVE all been in classic RPG mode lately, huh? I'm glad it's not just me. haha.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as far in BOF3 as I would have liked before I lost the game entirely. And I kinda stopped playing FF5 after a certain character came into play that I didn't like. haha. Needless to say, I was bratty child. I'm better now though, I SWEAR! :)

So I'll throw my own retro title question out there:

Exactly how hard is it to beat Lavos in the very beginning of Chrono Trigger with just Crono and Marle after staring New Game +? I was always too scared to try because I figured it would be REALLY hard.

Exactly how hard is it to beat Lavos in the very beginning of Chrono Trigger with just Crono and Marle after staring New Game +? I was always too scared to try because I figured it would be REALLY hard.

Go through the game twice, getting all the endings OTHER than that dream-team ending. On your third full playthrough (New Game+ on top of the New Game+ you started, with all those stat-up items found and your characters at a ridiculously high level), ALL BATTLES are easy. That includes both this path and the Zeal awakening path for the Dream Team ending.

Of course if you do try it with only the original new game completed then you're gonna need to a) have done nearly everything available in said game (go through the Black Omen and beat Queen Zeal at least once if not twice or thrice), and b) have never used any tabs. You'll want Chono in Moon Armor, either Safe Helm or Haste Helm, armed with his Rainbow (obviously), and an accessory that ups his Mag Def. You'll want Marle in a Prism Dress and Safe Helm (she want physical defense more than anything due to her naturally low Def stat and Lavos's tendency to rock both high amounts of physical and magical damage), her weapon is a non-factor so you might be better off looking for a weapon that improves other stats rather than attack, and either the gold necklace or the gold stud for either durability or to reduce the need to dip into your Elixir/Mega Elixir supply (of course if you were regularly charming peeps during the endgame you're probably have close to about 90 or so Elixirs + Mega Elixirs).

If you want to keep track of Lavos' HP so you don't mess up with him reviving THAT bit, you can use the Sightscope.If you're pretty confident in your HP tracking ability, go for the second setup which will help Marle survive his moonsomething ultimate physical attack.